This doesn’t make for light reading.
A new study has revealed how binge-watching TV can massively increase the risk of death from a blood clot in the lung.
A lung blood clot (pulmonary embolism) typically begins as a clot in the leg or pelvis that develops due to inactivity and reduced blood flow. The clot can break free and travel to a lung and lodge in a small blood vessel, posing a serious threat.
The study, published in the journal Circulatio, monitored the viewing habits of 86,000 people in Japan, aged 40 to 70. They were asked how many hours they spent watching television and then were followed for 19 years. During that time, 59 participants died of a blood clot in the lung.
The study found that the risk of dying from a blood clot to the lung rose by 70% for those who watched between two and a half hours and 5 hours of TV daily. The risk grew by 40 percent greater for each additional two hours of television viewing.
“We were surprised about the strength of the effect of television watching compared with the effects of advancing age, history of hypertension and diabetes mellitus, or body mass index in this study,” lead research Dr. Hiroyasu Iso told Reuters.
“We speculated that leg immobility during television watching had increased their risk of fatal pulmonary embolism.”
The most common symptoms of pulmonary embolism are chest pain and shortness of breath but a full diagnosis of the condition requires imaging scans.
If you do tend to binge-watch, there are ways to reduce your risk of pulmonary embolism.
After an hour or so, stand up, stretch, walk around, or while you're watching TV, tense and relax your leg muscles for 5 minutes.
Drinking water is also important.
